Realizing this may not be generally known and that it shouldn't be hidden on the 3rd page of the 2nd "nesdev designs" thread:

Western Design Center offers a C compiler/optimizer and ASM assembler/linker, among other tools, for free (except for commercial use on non- WDC/WDC licensed processors). I should probably also repeat their statement that the toolchain isn't for reverse-engineering their products even though that kind of goes without saying, since that's their subsistence.

And the button "register and download today" is a good link http://wdc65xx.com/wdctools-download-2/ but only gives the warning about downloading the tools, and then a link to a contact form if seeking commercial license.

No where on any of these sites could I find a place to register.. Maybe it's just down temporarily? Tried a couple different browsers with same results..

EDIT 2: Went ahead and filled out the contact us form explaining my confusion for lack of better options. Promptly contacted by support team and provided link to actual registration page: http://wdc65xx.com/WDCTools Which once filed out sends you an email back to the "download-2" page which ends up getting properly populated with a "click for free download" button which worked no problem.

_________________If you're gonna play the Game Boy, you gotta learn to play it right. -Kenny Rogers

Acorn CommunicatorApple IIGS (edit: platinum edition only)C-One Reconfigurable Computer (standard CPU/RAM card)Super Nintendo Entertainment System (the console's Ricoh 5A22 CPU is based on the 65C816)Nintendo SA-1 (a co-processor chip used in several SNES game cartridges; based on the 65C816)

Beside those, they're still used in industrial and medical applications. There's also a handful of obscure "build your own computer" kits and pcb designs.

Of course, this doesn't answer if Ricoh (or Hudson) had a license. Would they get away with doing the modification trick more than once (the 6502)?

Hmmm. Isn't only the Enhanced IIe (the one that could display those funny mousetext characters and I think it existed as an upgrade kit and also released alone) using 65C02? The non-enhanced IIe clones I had been using (which were supposed to be 100% identical to the real ones) only used the original 6502.

While I had the attention of the WDC rep I decided to ask if the 6502 in the NES/famicom was considered a WDC core and they said yes. So if there's a reasonable way to get around the fact the tools to don't support the 6502, WDC doesn't see the NES/famicom as requiring license for commercial projects.

_________________If you're gonna play the Game Boy, you gotta learn to play it right. -Kenny Rogers

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